Fabian Wißbrock

Motivation to study physics in Kenya

February 2006

Why abroad?

I have always been very interested in meeting people with a different cultural background. When I was a child, I lived close to a refugee camp and most of my friends were Afghans, Albanians, Kurds or Vietnamese people. I loved to have dinner with them and there families, which was like diving into a completely different world for me. Combined with all the amazing stories that my parents used to tell me about all their travel experiences, this arose the will in me to go abroad and to experience different cultures. For me it has always been clear that this could not be done by short touristic visits. If you really want to obtain a deeper understanding of a country, adjusting yourself to the local customs and integrating yourself into the society as much as possible is absolutely essential. This attitude has strongly been encouraged during my stays in Israel, where I worked with the locals (as a fisherman / electrician), made a lot of friends among people from all over the world, got to know a lot about the Israeli (and Arab) traditions and discussed endlessly about the Middle East conflict.

Why Sub-Sahara Africa?

When I first heard of the Berlin-Nairobi-Exchange, I realized, that taking part would allow me to reach my goal of improving my English, widening my horizon and experiencing a completely different way of living and studying, without neglecting my studies. Living in Germany you do not hear very much about Africa, and if you do it's mostly about civil wars and genocides. Luckily, I know some people, who spent a long time in Africa (in Tanzania resp. Namibia) and told me a lot about the positive, constructive and beautiful side of Africa, which I would like to discover now. Although the Western world is probably far ahead of Africa in terms of stable democracies, wealth, top-level-research etc., I am convinced that there are also a lot of issues, where we, as Westerners, could learn from Africa and it's people. This includes for example a totally different attitude towards other people, money and life in general. Of course, Africa has a rather bad reputation concerning education, but the statements of the former participants convinced me that the universities are far better than their reputation and courses like “History and Philosophy of Physics” would surely be enriching for my studies.

Why University of Nairobi?

Since the early stages of my application procedure, I collected a lot of informations about Nairobi. With its excellent universities, UoN and JKUAT, and the United Nations headquarters, Nairobi offers the possibility to get involved in social as well as physically oriented projects. The major reason for me preferring the universities in Nairobi is, that I am convinced, that a big multifaceted city like Nairobi with all its different people offers a far deeper insight into the Kenyan society, than a more countrified location. I have been very happy to hear about the projects you offer, since they combine the possibility to obtain some deeper understanding of physics with a beneficial element, something I always wanted to do. Since the JKUAT-semester starts in August, but my prediploma examinations are supposed to be in September, the University of Nairobi would be the better choice for me, especially since it has the reputation of being one of the best universities in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Of course, I am aware, that studying in a completely different country, with a totally different culture, might be a hard challenge. But so far my experiences in other countries made me confident that I could master it and I think, that this is actually what makes you develop and move forward in life.

I would like to thank you in advance for offering this opportunity to me and I would be very delighted if it would be possible for me to go to Kenya.